Time to review data confusion

today launches a campaign calling for an inquiry into the government's plans for implementing multiple, overlapping databases of basic citizen information.

We revealed the growing concerns over Whitehall database duplication earlier this month(Computing, 11 February)- and now the National Audit Office (NAO) has been asked to investigate the situation.

The Home Office plans to build an entirely new database from scratch to support its ID card scheme - at a cost of about £186m.

But there are at least two other projects to develop digital citizen registers in progress in other departments, and several systems already exist holding information with varying degrees of accuracy - the Passport Agency, DVLA, tax systems, National Insurance, Social Security, Child Benefits and NHS numbers, to name just a few.

Computing is calling for an independent inquiry into the many parallel and potentially duplicated projects to avoid confusion, wasted money and future data protection problems.

Alan Williams MP, chairman of the Public Accounts Commission that authorises funding for the NAO, raised the issue with Comptroller and Auditor General Sir John Bourn at a meeting this week.

'I will be raising the value-for-money implications of this elaborate duplication of IT resources,' Williams told Computing.

'I will ask Sir John Bourn if he can look into it before too much money is committed so the government has objective advice available to it from someone who looks right across government.'

Edward Leigh, the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, also supports the campaign.

'An inquiry is a very sensible idea and any campaign you undertake will be very welcome,' he said.

'The Conservative Party backs Computing's campaign on national databases,' said shadow home secretary David Davis.

Liberal Democrat IT spokesman Richard Allan said: 'The current proposals are a recipe for both wasting huge amounts of money and ending up with all sorts of data inaccuracies.

'The government needs to stop and think and see if there is any real meaning to the slogan of joined-up government.'